It’s been a year since rocker Bono and the gang from Elevation Partners bought into the Forbes family media empire in a deal that stunned the industry and grabbed page one headlines from Wall Street to Dublin.

Now, 12 months later, with the Forbes family selling its longtime headquarters building in Greenwich Village and its helicopters and pulling the plug on unprofitable titles, there are growing whispers around New York City and media circles from coast to coast about what is up inside the Forbes family empire.

The answer, it appears, is that the deal with Bono and company will result in the Forbes media dynasty ending with the sale of the company – or an initial public offering of at least a sizable stake in the company.

“The word inside is that there will be a liquidity event in the next two years,” one former executive told The Post.

While Steve Forbes and his three siblings, Timothy, Rob ert and Chris topher, – who have run the company since the death of their fa ther, Mal colm Forbes, in 1990 – are gamely saying they want to try to groom a fourth generation to run the family’s publishing empire, observers inside and outside the company are betting it never happens.

“That’s what we’d like to see happen,” Steve Forbes said on Friday. “In terms of two or three years out, we have no intention of selling our control of Forbes Media,” he said.

While Steve Forbes talks the talk, few think he can walk the walk. “If that’s what they wanted to happen, they wouldn’t have done the deal with Elevation,” offers Reed Phillips, an investment banker with DeSilva & Phillips.

“People inside think that Steve took some of his money out in the mid-1990s to finance his run for the Republican nomination for president. Now the brothers are looking to cash out too,” said one former executive.

It’s certainly a dramatically different business environment in 2007 compared to the heady ’70s and ’80s, when the flamboyant Malcolm wooed advertisers and readers alike by floating around in his Capitalist Tool hot-air balloons, riding motorcycles with Elizabeth Taylor and jetting around in the Forbes jet.

The company is now valued at about $750 million, based on Elevation’s deal, in which it acquired a 40 percent stake for a $300 million investment. The family is believed to have divvied up about $200 million while up to $100 million was re-invested in the company.

The Forbes empire was divided into two pieces after the investment, with Elevation’s money going into the faster growth half. Elevation, based in Menlo Park, Calif., hopes to grow the value of Forbes to more than $1 billion in a few years, observers say.

In another sign that Elevation only wanted revenue generators, money-losing American Heritage was left out of the Elevation deal. The magazine that was a favorite of Timothy Forbes ceased publication of its print version after the April/May issue.

“Private-equity players like Elevation are interested in investing and owning for three to five years,” Phillips said. “Once they’ve implemented the changes they want to improve the company’s bottom line, they’ll cash out.”

“Presumably, they had an agreement at the time they acquired the 40 percent to make it liquid,” said Phillips.

But an added sign that some kind of sell-off is likely: every one of the nearly 1,000 employees worldwide were given options, which only become viable in the event of a sale – either a spin-off or an initial public offering.

“Some of the shareholders are looking to get their estates in order,” acknowledged Steve Forbes. He declined to go into specifics.

For the moment, like all good investors, the Elevation team is expanding. In April, they purchased Investepedia to add to the Forbes.com holdings. “We’re looking very hard at a number of other add-on acquisitions,” said Steve Forbes.

On the other hand, the media side of the company has started its first new magazine in 17 years, ForbesLife Executive Women, but is keeping it small and manageable – and profitable – from the start.

In its old battle among the big three business titles, Forbes seems to have the upper hand versus BusinessWeek and Fortune in terms of circulation and ad pages – although all are down drastically from the heady days of 2000.

“I think print is holding its own,” said Phillips. Indeed, Forbes magazine is the circulation leader and its ad share of the market as measured is up.

The biggest wild card is the Web site, which could be pulling in as much as $80 million in reve nue – even if some skep tics doubt the traffic numbers will hold up. “The Web is not bigger than print, but it is growing rapidly,” said Steve Forbes.

Meanwhile, industry observers think more of the family holdings will go on the block. The company recently sold off its two 20-year-old helicopters, and only plans to replace the smaller one used on the yacht Highlander.

“When they put the Highlander up for sale, the end game is near,” said one executive.

But when one partygoer on the yacht last week asked one of the brothers if a sale of the yacht was next, he replied: “One of us will be buried in it.”